Covering for cotton-bales



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. R. M. WALSH.

GOVERING FOR COTTON BALES.

No. 410,387. Patented Sept. 3, 1889.

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ATTORNEY (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

R. M. WALSH.

GUVERING PoR COTTON BALBS.

No. 410,387. Patented Sept. 3, 1889.

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ROBERT M. XVALSH, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

COVERING FOR COTTON-BALES.

SPECIFICATION forming part ef Lettere Patent Ne. 410,887, dated september s, 1889.

Application filed May 14, 1889.

Io is employed to form an envelope for the bale to protect it from iire and bad Weather, to keep it clean, and prevent pilfering of the cotton.

My invention consists in the peculiar construction of the sheets in combination with devices for securing them around the bale and permitting of the reduction of the size of the bale when compressed, which I will new proceed to describe.

zo Figure l is a perspective View of a bale of cotton provided with my protecting-covering as it comes from the planter. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of one side of the bale. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the same bale after 2 5 it has been compressed and retitted with my covering minus the section K I. Fig. 4 is a plan view of one of the main coveringsheets, (the bottom one,) with the position of the bale indicated thereon in dotted lines.

3o Fig. 5 is a plan view of one of the removable middle sections of the covering.

A A represent the two main sheets, of which there is one iitted to the bottom and another to the top. These sheets are preferably of sheet-iron of about No. 27 gage,

and are each about seventy-eight inches long and forty-eight inches wide. To the sides of one of these sheets are nailed at the edges wooden strips D D, about three inches 4o wide, one inch thick, and of a length equal to that of the cotton-bale. To the ends of this same sheet are nailed similar strips D D, corresponding to the width of the cottonbale. At the lines G II the metal sheets are cut or slit-ted, so as to permit the sheet to be folded at the corners.

In Fig. 5, K K represent an intermediate sheet-metal section, whose part K iills in the space between the sheets A and A on the 5o side of the original bale, and whose part K iills in the space between the sheets A and Serial No. 310,788. (No model.)

A at the end ot' the original bale. These sections K K, of which there are two, are provided with Wooden strips D and D2, eorresponding, respectively, in length to the sides and ends of the bale. As shown, these sections are each made with the two parts K K in one piece of sheet metal about twenty-four inches wide and one hundred inches long; but these sections maybe'lnade with parts K and K separate and distinct and adapted to correspond accurately to the sides and ends of the bale.

In covering the bale it is laid upon the lower sheet A, as in Fig. 4., while the upper sheet A is laidon top of the sa1ne. The projecting edges of the upper sheet are bent down on t-he sides and ends of the bale, and the edges of the lower sheet are bent up so as to throw the wooden strips against the cotton. The middle sheets K K are now iitted between the bent edges of the upper and lower sheets, and the edge of the upper sheet A is nailed through the Wooden strips of the middle section K K', and the lower edge of section K K is nailed through the wooden strips of lower sheet A, as shown in Fig. 2. rlhe nails are formed with chiseledges and broad flat heads, so as to be readily removed when desired. The wooden strips D D are thus made tolie against and bury in the cotton and to give a irm anchorage to hold the nails that connect the sheets. The covered bale now presents the appearance shown in Fig. l.

WYhen the bale is to be compressed or reduced in size for reshipment, the nails are taken out, and middle sections K K being removed the bale is reduced transversely by compression until the edges of the two sheets A A lap. The nails are then driven through the edges of the upper sheet into the wooden re-enforce strips of the lower sheet, and my covering for the bale still protects it in the form shown in Fig. 3. XV hen the bales reach their final destination, the covering-shcets are attened out and nails packed and returned with the sheets, to be used again, if desired.

llavin g thus described my invention, what I claim as new is` l. A cotton-bale covering consistii'lg of me- IOO thereof, and removable intermediate metal sheets having Wooden strips at one edge, the said sheets being connected about the bale 15 by nails driven through the metal edge of one sheet into the Wood re-enforced edge of the other sheet, substantially as shown and described.

ROBERT M. vWALSHl `Witn csses:

ANDREW HERO, Jr., JNo. J. WARD. 

